May 6, 2025 • 18 mins
Welcome to the kickoff of the CPR to CEO's Lifeguard Trainer Series! In this episode, Dave Kotz breaks down everything you need to know about becoming a certified lifeguard instructor—whether you're a seasoned guard ready to step up, or someone looking to add a rewarding (and flexible) role to your career portfolio.
Drawing from decades of experience training lifeguards, instructors, and instructor trainers across the U.S., Dave walks you through the good, the challenging, and the truly life-changing parts of becoming a lifeguard instructor.
You’ll Learn:
- What a Lifeguard Instructor Actually Does
- Who Should Become One (and Why)
- Training Requirements and Time Commitment
- Costs, Materials, and What’s Included
- Teaching Skills vs. Lifeguarding Skills
- Career Opportunities (Full-Time, Part-Time, and Side Hustles)
- How to Succeed in the Instructor Course
- Common Mistakes New Instructors Make
- The Power of Co-Teaching
- How to Grow from Good to Great
Quick Story:
Dave shares the inspiring moment he helped a nervous new instructor find her voice—she’s now a top-tier trainer more than a decade later. Proof that belief, preparation, and mentorship can change your career trajectory.
Action Challenge:
If you're considering becoming a lifeguard instructor, take the next step today. Visit www.CPRtoCEO.com to download our Lifeguard Instructor Starter Kit and get a feel for what it takes to dive in.
📱 Follow @CPRtoCEO on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok
🌐 Explore resources: www.CPRtoCEO.com
💬 Got a lifeguarding story or question? Drop it in the comments or use #CPRtoCEO
Thanks for tuning in to CPR to CEO—where boots-on-the-ground experience meets boardroom strategy. Whether you're saving lives or building empires, we’re here to help you breathe life into your leadership journey. If today’s episode sparked something in you, share it, review it, and keep the momentum going.
Catch more behind-the-scenes, bonus tips, and full episodes on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok—just search @CPRtoCEO.
For resources, training, or to connect with our team, visit: www.CPRtoCEO.com
🛑 Disclaimer: The insights, strategies, and stories shared on CPR to CEO are for educational and informational purposes only. We don’t guarantee wealth, business success, or life transformation by applying anything from this podcast. Your results depend on your work ethic, decisions, and unique circumstances.
Stay safe. Stay sharp. See you next time.
—Dave Jacobs Kotz
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hi everyone.
It's Dave Kotz herefrom CPR to CEO.
I'm happy to have youhere at what's gonna be
our number one issue ofLifeguard Trainer to CEO.
It's the lifeguard series.
For those of you who haven'tmet me before or seen me
on the first time here, letme just give you a little
bit of my background.
(00:25):
I've been doing thisan awfully long time.
I'm a American Red Crosslifeguard, lifeguard instructor
trainer, and I used to bean American Red lifeguard
educator, so I was at thetip of the spear there, the
highest level you can get.
I was training otherpeople to become lifeguard
instructor trainers at theNational Academies that the
(00:47):
American Red Cross runs.
All that's well and good, butI also run a company, National
Safety Training Center.
We are one of the largesttraining entities in
the United States.
We trained thousands andthousands of lifeguards and
CPR students and babysittingstudents, et cetera, et cetera.
(01:08):
Suffices to say, we've taughta lot of students, and I
wanna give you some thoughtsand ideas around becoming
a lifeguard instructor.
The good.
The Bad.
The Opportunities.
So buckle up, let's get intoit and talk about lifeguard
instructor certification.
So what exactly is a lifeguardinstructor certification?
(01:29):
Very simply, this is thelicense you need, whether it's
from the American Red Cross orany other entity that allows
you to train other people tobecome certified lifeguards.
Pretty simple.
Why would you wanna do this?
Glad you asked.
Some people think ofthis as a summer job.
It could be perfect ifyou're a school teacher
(01:52):
or you have summers offfor any other reason.
Could be you're acollege student.
This is a great path to becomea lifeguard instructor and
these positions are in demand.
So, there are a couple differentkind of paths you can go
down as lifeguard instructor.
You can be in municipalrecreation; work
(02:12):
for a town pool.
You can be in the aquaticsindustry, be that at one of
the large national brands ofYMCA, a JCC, any of the fitness
chains, or you can go into waterrescue or lifeguard instructor
as a entry to public safety.
There are literallylifeguard entities that are
(02:33):
embedded in fire departmentsall over the world.
It's a great way to get in.
Not everyone knows that.
What's the differencebetween lifeguarding and
lifeguard instructor?
Very simply, lifeguardsare the people in the
water making the rescues.
Lifeguard instructors are theones in the classroom creating
(02:57):
the lifesavers in the classroom.
Let me restate that.
Lifeguards makesaves in the water.
Lifeguard instructors makelife savers in the classroom.
I like that.
All right, so now that wegot the basics underway
here, you wanna becomea lifeguard instructor?
Great.
What's the timeline?
(03:18):
What's your level of commitment?
What's this going- how'sthis gonna work for you?
Number one is you have tobe an experienced lifeguard.
If you're not an experiencedlifeguard, you're not
gonna get as much out ofbecoming an instructor.
So we want you to be anexperienced lifeguard.
Current prerequisites tobecome an American Red
Cross lifeguard instructor,you must be 17 years old.
(03:39):
There are other lifeguardorganizations out there.
Next most popular mightbe StarGuard Elite, or
Jeff Ellis and Associates.
Both are wonderfullifeguard organizations.
Nothing wrong with them,but the Red Cross has at
least 80% market share.
They're the most common andeasily recognizable lifeguard
certification out there.
(03:59):
So, 17 years old.
You need to havesome experience.
The more experience you haveas a lifeguard, the more you're
gonna learn and get out ofit as a lifeguard instructor.
Time commitment, how muchtime is this gonna take?
You already spent sometime becoming a lifeguard
and getting experience.
The lifeguard instructorcourse specifically does
(04:19):
have some online content.
It might take you a fewhours, but then you're gonna
spend two and a half or tworeally long days doing your
lifeguarding in person class.
What are you gonna do there?
You're gonna polish andperfect your lifeguarding
skills and your classroommanagement skills.
(04:42):
So you're taking a step up.
Not only you're gonna bea lifeguard and have to
demonstrate those lifeguardskills properly and be
able to teach them, but youhave to be able to manage
your classroom space.
And that's a challenge.
We can have the world's bestlifeguards, but unless they
can teach, they will not beeffective lifeguard instructors.
(05:05):
Also, that means you can bean awesome instructor, but
if you're not familiar withlifeguarding and can't perform
the skills of lifeguarding,you won't be successful either.
So you have to have thatimaginary Venn diagram of
lifeguard experience, teachingexperience, the intersection
of which makes you verygood chances of becoming an
(05:27):
excellent lifeguard instructor.
Now you may ask.
What is this gonna cost me?
If you're working for anorganization, they may
pay for everything, soit may cost you zero.
If you're doing this on yourown and you think this is gonna
be how you break into your nextjob or career path, it might
cost you a couple hundred bucks.
(05:49):
There are lifeguard classesout there, lifeguard instructor
classes out there that mightbe 500 or more dollars.
Plus you're gonna need someother pieces of equipment.
You may need lifeguard manuals.
Now the nice part aboutspecifically the American
Red Cross is all thewritten materials are
available to you for free,and let's be more clear.
(06:11):
It just means they're includedin the Red Cross administrative
fees that you're gonna pay.
There's no free lunch out there.
So you're gonna needsome manuals and you need
some access to videosand those type of things.
You need to be able tofollow a lesson plan.
This is the thing thatis most interesting for
lifeguard instructors.
You don't have to create it.
(06:32):
You don't have to createthe lesson plans like you
would if you were a watersafety instructor or WSI.
You need to be able to followthe existing lesson plans
that are given to you byyour training organization.
Be that Jeff Ellis,StarGuard Elite, or
the American Red Cross.
They all have existing lessonplans that all you need to
do is follow the lesson plan.
(06:53):
You are also gonna need tobe able to teach people from
fairly diverse backgrounds.
Lifeguarding is asport for everybody.
You will have every kindof person you've seen in
the world come through yourclasses as a lifeguard and
as a lifeguard instructor.
We see everything, everyshape, size, color, religion.
(07:17):
Woo.
Everything.
You need to be able to workwith these people no matter what
their particular background is.
Sometimes there may bea language difficulty.
Sometimes there may bea culture difficulty.
There may be a clothingissue with them for what
they wear in the water.
All of these thingsare easy to overcome.
You just need to be awareof them and work with your
(07:40):
students ahead of time tomaximize their success.
What is the career potential ofbecoming a lifeguard instructor?
Haha.
Let me tell you.
There are tremendousopportunities in teaching
lifeguarding courses,and they're very focused.
You could work at yMCA or a JCC.
(08:03):
There are multiple waterparks around the country, some
year round, some seasonal.
All of them needlifeguard instructors.
Then there's municipalrecreation, your town pool.
They also needlifeguard instructors.
They may hire them individually.
They may becomeemployees, or they may
outsource that contract.
(08:25):
Can you do this full time?
Yes, you can.
Particularly if you're lookingseasonally, at least in the
northern areas of the world.
I'm in the Northeast UnitedStates in particular.
We have a huge demandfor lifeguarding courses
may through mid-July.
After that it slows downa little bit, but those
(08:45):
three or four months,we are wackadoo busy.
So there's huge opportunitiesin a short period of time.
So that's full time.
You can also do thispart-time, whether you are
working as a public safetyprofessional, be that EMS,
fire police, et cetera.
Can you have a side hustleas a lifeguard instructor?
Absolutely.
We know people whomake that successful.
(09:07):
There are several in ournetwork of folks that do
this very, very effectively.
Whether again, you're aschool teacher or public
safety professional,almost anything else.
It's odd.
We literally have folks fromphysicians, medical doctors.
Attorneys that are alsolifeguard instructors.
So it's suitablefor almost anybody.
And let's face it, the mostsuccessful folks are the ones
(09:30):
who can make the education fun.
So they bring with them theirbackground, their skills, their
personality, and when they makethe classes fun for people.
That's how they are successful.
So we talked a little bitabout settings, people that
hire lifeguard instructors,everything from your local
gym again, be that a YMCA,JCC, Lifetime Fitness,
(09:52):
whatever you have around you.
It could be a local pool club.
In our area, there'sBerkeley Aquatics.
Could be a swimteam organization.
It could be a school system.
Many school systems around thecountry have dedicated pools
in their schools, and that'sa great way to do things, too.
A lot of great training canhappen in the school system.
(10:13):
We talked about municipalrecreation centers and
your local town pool.
That could be indoors, it couldbe outdoors, it could be both.
And then there'sbusinesses like mine.
We run a training business.
We are a largetraining provider.
We would love to hire awesomeor elite lifeguard instructors.
That could be you.
We, again, we can do itpart-time, full-time,
(10:36):
almost anything.
The demand is actually quitehigh, and again, particularly
in our area for the severalmonths between May and July.
Now you're probably wanting,I got you all excited.
How do I pass theinstructor course?
I can tell you.
There's a couplethings you need to do.
So first, you need to prepare.
You have to be familiarwith the course materials.
(10:57):
Spend the time learningthe course materials.
The index is your friend.
Learn where thingsare in the book.
Learn how to find them.
Index and glossary; do it.
In particular, the RedCross has a focus on skill
charts and assessment tools.
You need to be able to usethese specifically to determine
if the students in yourlifeguard instructor class
(11:20):
are able to pass that portion.
So being able to effectively useskill charts and assessment tool
is an essential component tobecoming a lifeguard instructor.
Lastly, you need to befamiliar with the equipment.
If we bring you onto the pooldeck and it's the first time
you've seen a CJ backboard, thatis not an advantage for you.
(11:40):
You need to be familiar witha lot of the equipment that
gets used in the industry.
When we do classes, we try andbring a diversity of equipment.
So we'll bring a CJ backboardand then we'll bring more
of a traditional backboard.
We may even bring in old schoolwooden backboard as well.
You never know what you're gonnabe presented without in the
world, so we'd like to give youexposure to all of the choices
that you may find available.
(12:01):
And backboard is justone good example.
Head block systems is another.
Sometimes rescue tubescan be challenging.
Some people have verylong rescue tubes.
Some people haveshort rescue tubes.
Some are polyurethane coatedand some are just foam.
And some are the hardplastic types that you see
in Baywatch, et cetera.
Not used so much atindoor pools, but they
exist and they're valid.
(12:22):
Do you need prior teachingexperience to become a
lifeguard instructor?
No, you don't.
We can make almost anybodya lifeguard instructor.
The lifeguard instructortrainers that at least I'm
familiar with, are verytalented and the tools that our
training organization, again,particularly the American Red
Cross, gives us our excellenttraining tools, and we can
(12:42):
train almost anyone to becomea lifeguard instructor.
However, becoming a goodlifeguard instructor takes
significantly more effort.
Teaching experienceis very handy here.
Can you follow a lesson plan?
Great.
That's the check mark, butcan you follow the lesson
plan and make it interestingand fun while following
(13:03):
the lesson plan is whatwill separate you from the
average lifeguard instructor.
Co-teaching is a phenomenalway to gain practical
experience as a new instructor.
Some organizations actuallyrequire that you co-teach as a
condition, as you become a moreexperienced instructor, they'll
have a co-teaching standard, andI'm just thinking of StarGuard
(13:25):
Elite, in this particular case.
When you become a levelone instructor, you can't
teach by yourself yet.
That's at level two.
So becoming an instructor butbe requiring you to have another
more experienced instructorwith you for the class, is
truly an excellent idea.
We encourage it as an AmericanRed Cross lifeguard instructors.
(13:47):
We just don't require itlike StarGuard Elite does.
I think StarGuard'sonto something here.
Co-teaching, like it.
Someone's asked me whatare the biggest mistakes
new instructors make?
I'm gonna tell you what Ithink they are and then I'm
gonna tell you a quick story.
The biggest mistake, I thinknew instructors make is
(14:10):
selling themselves short.
Believe in yourself.
You've been trained.
Hopefully you've been trainedvery well, and you have
expert knowledge in howto create new lifeguards.
Don't diminish that.
That is an amazing set of skillsthat not everyone has, and not
everyone is as good as you are.
(14:31):
So don't sell yourself short.
Now, here's the story time.
I will never forget workingwith one particular new
lifeguard instructor, and Ithink she knows who she is
when she sees this video.
We were at a summercamp in Pennsylvania
and we were co-teaching.
There were three lifeguardinstructors for a group
of, I think 27 futureor potential lifeguards.
(14:55):
And it was time for thisnew instructor to deliver
some course content.
I think they were gonnado active rescues at the
surface, and they stood up infront of these 27 teenagers
effectively and froze.
I had to go up behind thatparticular new instructor
and just tell her to breathe.
(15:16):
I literally said, breathe,you got this, you can do it.
And I watched her take adeep breath and she has
been on a tear ever since.
She is an amazing instructor.
I watch her now and I'mvery impressed with what
she's doing in aquatics.
She's still working inaquatics 12 years later.
It's a wonderful fraternityor sorority that we follow the
(15:39):
people who come through ourclasses and are successful,
and it's so nice to monitorthem as they continue their
success in their givenfield, which is really cool.
Hey, that could have been you.
It could have been your friend.
It will be you at some pointwhere you, all you need
is just a quick pause, atactical pause as it were, and
(16:00):
then continue your thought.
The people in front of youdon't have any idea that
you're a duck, and you maylook calm on the surface, but
your legs are paddling, allkinds of crazy under the water.
Look calm on the surface.
Take a tactical pause,take a deep breath, and
then continue your lesson.
(16:21):
Everyone will think you'rebrilliant, trust me.
Okay, let's talk takeaways.
What can we do tobe a lifeguard?
There's plenty of opportunityfor lifeguards out there,
lifeguard instructors,plenty of opportunity.
Most people can becomea lifeguard instructor.
Fewer people can become agood lifeguard instructor,
(16:45):
and very few will becomegreat lifeguard instructors.
You can do it.
It's how you adapt yourpersonality, your background,
your skills, and how you addthat to following the lesson
plan and let your personalityshine to deliver your courses;
that will make you a trulyexcellent lifeguard instructor.
(17:09):
The other thing we'lltell you how to become
successful, proper preparationprevents poor performance.
Some people put extrawords in there, but that's
pretty much a good summary.
The more you prepare foryour class, the more you're
familiar with materials, themore successful you will be.
(17:30):
Not just as a lifeguardinstructor, but pretty
much everything elsein your life, too.
So we've learned a lot.
We've learned, hopefully from myexperience, I certainly learned
when I was a young lifeguardinstructor back in the eighties.
Now I'm older, in experienced.
I. I'm gonna invite youto do a couple things.
One is you can get ourlifeguard instructor business
(17:52):
starter kit by clicking atthe link below or going to
our website cprtoceo.com.
You can also followus here on YouTube.
We have a short series and thenwe have a longer series as well.
But we'll have the links inthe description box below for
both of those content blocks.
Hopefully we'll continueto provide you with
(18:13):
interesting subject matterthat you will follow.
Hey, again, thank you so muchfor listening to CPR to CEO
Lifeguard Instructor edition.
I hope wish you a happysummer training season and
I look forward to seeingyou in the classroom.
Thanks so much.
Hi everyone.
It's Dave Kotz herefrom CPR to CEO.
I'm happy to have youhere at what's gonna be
our number one issue ofLifeguard Trainer to CEO.
It's the lifeguard series.
For those of you who haven'tmet me before or seen me
on the first time here, letme just give you a little
bit of my background.
(00:25):
I've been doing thisan awfully long time.
I'm a American Red Crosslifeguard, lifeguard instructor
trainer, and I used to bean American Red lifeguard
educator, so I was at thetip of the spear there, the
highest level you can get.
I was training otherpeople to become lifeguard
instructor trainers at theNational Academies that the
(00:47):
American Red Cross runs.
All that's well and good, butI also run a company, National
Safety Training Center.
We are one of the largesttraining entities in
the United States.
We trained thousands andthousands of lifeguards and
CPR students and babysittingstudents, et cetera, et cetera.
(01:08):
Suffices to say, we've taughta lot of students, and I
wanna give you some thoughtsand ideas around becoming
a lifeguard instructor.
The good.
The Bad.
The Opportunities.
So buckle up, let's get intoit and talk about lifeguard
instructor certification.
So what exactly is a lifeguardinstructor certification?
(01:29):
Very simply, this is thelicense you need, whether it's
from the American Red Cross orany other entity that allows
you to train other people tobecome certified lifeguards.
Pretty simple.
Why would you wanna do this?
Glad you asked.
Some people think ofthis as a summer job.
It could be perfect ifyou're a school teacher
(01:52):
or you have summers offfor any other reason.
Could be you're acollege student.
This is a great path to becomea lifeguard instructor and
these positions are in demand.
So, there are a couple differentkind of paths you can go
down as lifeguard instructor.
You can be in municipalrecreation; work
(02:12):
for a town pool.
You can be in the aquaticsindustry, be that at one of
the large national brands ofYMCA, a JCC, any of the fitness
chains, or you can go into waterrescue or lifeguard instructor
as a entry to public safety.
There are literallylifeguard entities that are
(02:33):
embedded in fire departmentsall over the world.
It's a great way to get in.
Not everyone knows that.
What's the differencebetween lifeguarding and
lifeguard instructor?
Very simply, lifeguardsare the people in the
water making the rescues.
Lifeguard instructors are theones in the classroom creating
(02:57):
the lifesavers in the classroom.
Let me restate that.
Lifeguards makesaves in the water.
Lifeguard instructors makelife savers in the classroom.
I like that.
All right, so now that wegot the basics underway
here, you wanna becomea lifeguard instructor?
Great.
What's the timeline?
(03:18):
What's your level of commitment?
What's this going- how'sthis gonna work for you?
Number one is you have tobe an experienced lifeguard.
If you're not an experiencedlifeguard, you're not
gonna get as much out ofbecoming an instructor.
So we want you to be anexperienced lifeguard.
Current prerequisites tobecome an American Red
Cross lifeguard instructor,you must be 17 years old.
(03:39):
There are other lifeguardorganizations out there.
Next most popular mightbe StarGuard Elite, or
Jeff Ellis and Associates.
Both are wonderfullifeguard organizations.
Nothing wrong with them,but the Red Cross has at
least 80% market share.
They're the most common andeasily recognizable lifeguard
certification out there.
(03:59):
So, 17 years old.
You need to havesome experience.
The more experience you haveas a lifeguard, the more you're
gonna learn and get out ofit as a lifeguard instructor.
Time commitment, how muchtime is this gonna take?
You already spent sometime becoming a lifeguard
and getting experience.
The lifeguard instructorcourse specifically does
(04:19):
have some online content.
It might take you a fewhours, but then you're gonna
spend two and a half or tworeally long days doing your
lifeguarding in person class.
What are you gonna do there?
You're gonna polish andperfect your lifeguarding
skills and your classroommanagement skills.
(04:42):
So you're taking a step up.
Not only you're gonna bea lifeguard and have to
demonstrate those lifeguardskills properly and be
able to teach them, but youhave to be able to manage
your classroom space.
And that's a challenge.
We can have the world's bestlifeguards, but unless they
can teach, they will not beeffective lifeguard instructors.
(05:05):
Also, that means you can bean awesome instructor, but
if you're not familiar withlifeguarding and can't perform
the skills of lifeguarding,you won't be successful either.
So you have to have thatimaginary Venn diagram of
lifeguard experience, teachingexperience, the intersection
of which makes you verygood chances of becoming an
(05:27):
excellent lifeguard instructor.
Now you may ask.
What is this gonna cost me?
If you're working for anorganization, they may
pay for everything, soit may cost you zero.
If you're doing this on yourown and you think this is gonna
be how you break into your nextjob or career path, it might
cost you a couple hundred bucks.
(05:49):
There are lifeguard classesout there, lifeguard instructor
classes out there that mightbe 500 or more dollars.
Plus you're gonna need someother pieces of equipment.
You may need lifeguard manuals.
Now the nice part aboutspecifically the American
Red Cross is all thewritten materials are
available to you for free,and let's be more clear.
(06:11):
It just means they're includedin the Red Cross administrative
fees that you're gonna pay.
There's no free lunch out there.
So you're gonna needsome manuals and you need
some access to videosand those type of things.
You need to be able tofollow a lesson plan.
This is the thing thatis most interesting for
lifeguard instructors.
You don't have to create it.
(06:32):
You don't have to createthe lesson plans like you
would if you were a watersafety instructor or WSI.
You need to be able to followthe existing lesson plans
that are given to you byyour training organization.
Be that Jeff Ellis,StarGuard Elite, or
the American Red Cross.
They all have existing lessonplans that all you need to
do is follow the lesson plan.
(06:53):
You are also gonna need tobe able to teach people from
fairly diverse backgrounds.
Lifeguarding is asport for everybody.
You will have every kindof person you've seen in
the world come through yourclasses as a lifeguard and
as a lifeguard instructor.
We see everything, everyshape, size, color, religion.
(07:17):
Woo.
Everything.
You need to be able to workwith these people no matter what
their particular background is.
Sometimes there may bea language difficulty.
Sometimes there may bea culture difficulty.
There may be a clothingissue with them for what
they wear in the water.
All of these thingsare easy to overcome.
You just need to be awareof them and work with your
(07:40):
students ahead of time tomaximize their success.
What is the career potential ofbecoming a lifeguard instructor?
Haha.
Let me tell you.
There are tremendousopportunities in teaching
lifeguarding courses,and they're very focused.
You could work at yMCA or a JCC.
(08:03):
There are multiple waterparks around the country, some
year round, some seasonal.
All of them needlifeguard instructors.
Then there's municipalrecreation, your town pool.
They also needlifeguard instructors.
They may hire them individually.
They may becomeemployees, or they may
outsource that contract.
(08:25):
Can you do this full time?
Yes, you can.
Particularly if you're lookingseasonally, at least in the
northern areas of the world.
I'm in the Northeast UnitedStates in particular.
We have a huge demandfor lifeguarding courses
may through mid-July.
After that it slows downa little bit, but those
(08:45):
three or four months,we are wackadoo busy.
So there's huge opportunitiesin a short period of time.
So that's full time.
You can also do thispart-time, whether you are
working as a public safetyprofessional, be that EMS,
fire police, et cetera.
Can you have a side hustleas a lifeguard instructor?
Absolutely.
We know people whomake that successful.
(09:07):
There are several in ournetwork of folks that do
this very, very effectively.
Whether again, you're aschool teacher or public
safety professional,almost anything else.
It's odd.
We literally have folks fromphysicians, medical doctors.
Attorneys that are alsolifeguard instructors.
So it's suitablefor almost anybody.
And let's face it, the mostsuccessful folks are the ones
(09:30):
who can make the education fun.
So they bring with them theirbackground, their skills, their
personality, and when they makethe classes fun for people.
That's how they are successful.
So we talked a little bitabout settings, people that
hire lifeguard instructors,everything from your local
gym again, be that a YMCA,JCC, Lifetime Fitness,
(09:52):
whatever you have around you.
It could be a local pool club.
In our area, there'sBerkeley Aquatics.
Could be a swimteam organization.
It could be a school system.
Many school systems around thecountry have dedicated pools
in their schools, and that'sa great way to do things, too.
A lot of great training canhappen in the school system.
(10:13):
We talked about municipalrecreation centers and
your local town pool.
That could be indoors, it couldbe outdoors, it could be both.
And then there'sbusinesses like mine.
We run a training business.
We are a largetraining provider.
We would love to hire awesomeor elite lifeguard instructors.
That could be you.
We, again, we can do itpart-time, full-time,
(10:36):
almost anything.
The demand is actually quitehigh, and again, particularly
in our area for the severalmonths between May and July.
Now you're probably wanting,I got you all excited.
How do I pass theinstructor course?
I can tell you.
There's a couplethings you need to do.
So first, you need to prepare.
You have to be familiarwith the course materials.
(10:57):
Spend the time learningthe course materials.
The index is your friend.
Learn where thingsare in the book.
Learn how to find them.
Index and glossary; do it.
In particular, the RedCross has a focus on skill
charts and assessment tools.
You need to be able to usethese specifically to determine
if the students in yourlifeguard instructor class
(11:20):
are able to pass that portion.
So being able to effectively useskill charts and assessment tool
is an essential component tobecoming a lifeguard instructor.
Lastly, you need to befamiliar with the equipment.
If we bring you onto the pooldeck and it's the first time
you've seen a CJ backboard, thatis not an advantage for you.
(11:40):
You need to be familiar witha lot of the equipment that
gets used in the industry.
When we do classes, we try andbring a diversity of equipment.
So we'll bring a CJ backboardand then we'll bring more
of a traditional backboard.
We may even bring in old schoolwooden backboard as well.
You never know what you're gonnabe presented without in the
world, so we'd like to give youexposure to all of the choices
that you may find available.
(12:01):
And backboard is justone good example.
Head block systems is another.
Sometimes rescue tubescan be challenging.
Some people have verylong rescue tubes.
Some people haveshort rescue tubes.
Some are polyurethane coatedand some are just foam.
And some are the hardplastic types that you see
in Baywatch, et cetera.
Not used so much atindoor pools, but they
exist and they're valid.
(12:22):
Do you need prior teachingexperience to become a
lifeguard instructor?
No, you don't.
We can make almost anybodya lifeguard instructor.
The lifeguard instructortrainers that at least I'm
familiar with, are verytalented and the tools that our
training organization, again,particularly the American Red
Cross, gives us our excellenttraining tools, and we can
(12:42):
train almost anyone to becomea lifeguard instructor.
However, becoming a goodlifeguard instructor takes
significantly more effort.
Teaching experienceis very handy here.
Can you follow a lesson plan?
Great.
That's the check mark, butcan you follow the lesson
plan and make it interestingand fun while following
(13:03):
the lesson plan is whatwill separate you from the
average lifeguard instructor.
Co-teaching is a phenomenalway to gain practical
experience as a new instructor.
Some organizations actuallyrequire that you co-teach as a
condition, as you become a moreexperienced instructor, they'll
have a co-teaching standard, andI'm just thinking of StarGuard
(13:25):
Elite, in this particular case.
When you become a levelone instructor, you can't
teach by yourself yet.
That's at level two.
So becoming an instructor butbe requiring you to have another
more experienced instructorwith you for the class, is
truly an excellent idea.
We encourage it as an AmericanRed Cross lifeguard instructors.
(13:47):
We just don't require itlike StarGuard Elite does.
I think StarGuard'sonto something here.
Co-teaching, like it.
Someone's asked me whatare the biggest mistakes
new instructors make?
I'm gonna tell you what Ithink they are and then I'm
gonna tell you a quick story.
The biggest mistake, I thinknew instructors make is
(14:10):
selling themselves short.
Believe in yourself.
You've been trained.
Hopefully you've been trainedvery well, and you have
expert knowledge in howto create new lifeguards.
Don't diminish that.
That is an amazing set of skillsthat not everyone has, and not
everyone is as good as you are.
(14:31):
So don't sell yourself short.
Now, here's the story time.
I will never forget workingwith one particular new
lifeguard instructor, and Ithink she knows who she is
when she sees this video.
We were at a summercamp in Pennsylvania
and we were co-teaching.
There were three lifeguardinstructors for a group
of, I think 27 futureor potential lifeguards.
(14:55):
And it was time for thisnew instructor to deliver
some course content.
I think they were gonnado active rescues at the
surface, and they stood up infront of these 27 teenagers
effectively and froze.
I had to go up behind thatparticular new instructor
and just tell her to breathe.
(15:16):
I literally said, breathe,you got this, you can do it.
And I watched her take adeep breath and she has
been on a tear ever since.
She is an amazing instructor.
I watch her now and I'mvery impressed with what
she's doing in aquatics.
She's still working inaquatics 12 years later.
It's a wonderful fraternityor sorority that we follow the
(15:39):
people who come through ourclasses and are successful,
and it's so nice to monitorthem as they continue their
success in their givenfield, which is really cool.
Hey, that could have been you.
It could have been your friend.
It will be you at some pointwhere you, all you need
is just a quick pause, atactical pause as it were, and
(16:00):
then continue your thought.
The people in front of youdon't have any idea that
you're a duck, and you maylook calm on the surface, but
your legs are paddling, allkinds of crazy under the water.
Look calm on the surface.
Take a tactical pause,take a deep breath, and
then continue your lesson.
(16:21):
Everyone will think you'rebrilliant, trust me.
Okay, let's talk takeaways.
What can we do tobe a lifeguard?
There's plenty of opportunityfor lifeguards out there,
lifeguard instructors,plenty of opportunity.
Most people can becomea lifeguard instructor.
Fewer people can become agood lifeguard instructor,
(16:45):
and very few will becomegreat lifeguard instructors.
You can do it.
It's how you adapt yourpersonality, your background,
your skills, and how you addthat to following the lesson
plan and let your personalityshine to deliver your courses;
that will make you a trulyexcellent lifeguard instructor.
(17:09):
The other thing we'lltell you how to become
successful, proper preparationprevents poor performance.
Some people put extrawords in there, but that's
pretty much a good summary.
The more you prepare foryour class, the more you're
familiar with materials, themore successful you will be.
(17:30):
Not just as a lifeguardinstructor, but pretty
much everything elsein your life, too.
So we've learned a lot.
We've learned, hopefully from myexperience, I certainly learned
when I was a young lifeguardinstructor back in the eighties.
Now I'm older, in experienced.
I. I'm gonna invite youto do a couple things.
One is you can get ourlifeguard instructor business
(17:52):
starter kit by clicking atthe link below or going to
our website cprtoceo.com.
You can also followus here on YouTube.
We have a short series and thenwe have a longer series as well.
But we'll have the links inthe description box below for
both of those content blocks.
Hopefully we'll continueto provide you with
(18:13):
interesting subject matterthat you will follow.
Hey, again, thank you so muchfor listening to CPR to CEO
Lifeguard Instructor edition.
I hope wish you a happysummer training season and
I look forward to seeingyou in the classroom.
Thanks so much.
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